War Tax Resistance in the Friends Journal in 2002

War tax resistance in the Friends Journal in
2002

In 2002 mentions of war tax resistance in the
Friends Journal were few and far between.

In the April issue, Cliff Marrs (a British
Quaker) gave his interpretation of the “Render Unto Caesar…” koan from the
Bible, and in particular what guidance it offers to those war tax resisters
who take advice from scripture. His point-of-view:

The idea that Jesus was circumscribing a political realm that was Caesar’s
domain, and a sacred realm that belonged to God, is anachronistic. Jesus,
and his Jewish listeners, “regarded God as the Creator, and the whole
universe as God’s domain — including politics — and would not have
distinguished between the political and the religious.”

The tax in question “functioned as a kind of rent that assumed that all
land belonged ultimately to the Roman Empire,” while core Jewish scripture
makes it clear that Israel belongs to God.

The fact that Jesus had to ask someone else for a coin to use to
illustrate his point may be significant — perhaps he did not carry such a
coin because its use of a graven image that represented a member of the
Roman ruling class as a divinity was idolatrous, or perhaps he had
rejected Roman money and so (by the logic of his epigram) its taxes as
well. Maybe he was suggesting that it’s not sufficient to refuse to pay
Roman taxes, but you ought to reject Roman money as well: give it back to
Caesar and be done with it.

Would Jesus, who cared for the poor, really promote a regressive poll
tax?

Paul’s unmistakable pay-your-taxes command in Romans
13 isn’t necessarily an interpretation of Jesus’s instructions, or
even good advice in general, but was just a pragmatic, common-sense
instruction to Christians living in Rome.

Since Jesus was ultimately charged with promoting resistance to Roman
taxes prior to his execution, this seems to indicate that at least some of
his listeners interpreted his message that way.

In short, biblically-oriented tax resisters should not be frightened off
by the “Render Unto Caesar…” episode, as its interpretation is not so
simple as its vulgar usage may suggest.

An obituary notice for Edith Carlton Browne in the same issue noted that
“[s]he and [her husband] Gordon became military tax resisters in
the early 1960s, and she continued that
witness throughout her life.” Another obituary, for Lorraine Ketchum
Cleveland, said that “[i]n 1949 she became a
war-tax refuser in a case that eventually went to the Supreme Court
(Cleveland, Cadwallader, and the AFSCvs.U.S.A.).
Lorraine continued throughout her life to deduct from her federal taxes that
portion that would be used for war, and sent it to a worthy cause.”

The July issue mentioned the tax resistance of
Robert Purvis, who refused to pay his Pennsylvania state taxes in protest
against the state’s denial of equal voting rights to black citizens around
1838, and then refused to pay “that portion of
his property tax that went to support the schools” in
1853 when his children were refused admission to
the whites-only classrooms. Purvis wrote:

I have borne this outrage ever since the innovation upon the usual practice
of admitting all the children of the township into the public schools, and at
considerable expense, have been obliged to obtain the services of private
teachers to instruct my children, while my school tax is greater, with a
single exception, than that of any other citizen of the township. It is true,
(and the outrage is made but the more glaring and insulting): I was informed
by a pious Quaker director, with sanctifying grace, imparting, doubtless, an
unctuous glow to his saintly prejudices, that a school in the village of
Mechanicsville was appropriated for “thine.” The miserable shanty, with all
its appurtenances, on the very line of the township, to which this benighted
follower of George Fox alluded, is, as you know, the most flimsy and
ridiculous sham which any tool of a skin-hating aristocracy have resorted to,
to cover or protect his servility.

An article in the November issue mentioned in
passing that “Quakers withdrew almost as a single body from the Pennsylvania
legislature in the 1770s rather than vote
taxes for war.”

An obituary notice for Wally Nelson (not, I believe, a Quaker, but the
obituary says he “demonstrated the values and commitment of a Friend; by his
loving manner and unwavering integrity, he shaped an ideal for Friends to
aspire to”) mentions his war tax resistance activities:

In 1948, he cofounded Peacemakers, a national
organization dedicated to active nonviolence as a way of life. In
the same year, he and his wife, Juanita Nelson,
began their lifelong practice of refusing to pay taxes used for armaments and
killing.… During the late 1970s, the couple
was among the founders of the Valley Community Land Trust, Pioneer Valley War
Tax Resisters, and the Greenfield Farmers Market. He was well known as a
regular market vendor in downtown Greenfield and as a participant in the
annual war tax protest in front of the Greenfield Post Office on tax day.

The December issue noted that the Northern
Yearly Meeting had “approved a minute expressing support for the Religious
Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill and for those who are conscientiously opposed to
war taxes.”

At this point, those Quakers who cannot pay for military and weapons are
subject to great sacrifice. Some have refused employment that would result in
a taxable level of income. Others have exposed themselves to confiscation of
their homes and other possessions. We seek a legal mechanism whereby we may
pay taxes and be responsible citizens without funding human death and
suffering. We view adoption of [the Bill] as providing religious freedom to
many of our Society currently suffering for their faithfulness to their
Quaker beliefs.

Add that all up and we get:

one abstract discussion of whether war tax resistance conflicts with
Jesus’s teachings

three mentions of American war tax resisters recently deceased

one mention of a tax resister from the
19th century

one mention of American Quaker war tax resistance from
the 18th
century

one contemporary American Quaker Meeting advocating the latest Peace Tax
Fund scheme and alluding to the acts of contemporary Quaker war tax
resisters

Which is to say: next to nothing about actual real-life American Quakers doing
actual, honest-to-goodness war tax resistance in
2002.

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